


Underground

by masterwords



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Fluff, Hurt James T. Kirk, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:49:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23940337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterwords/pseuds/masterwords
Summary: While exploring a cave on an uninhabited planet, Kirk and Spock are caught in a rather precarious situation.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock
Comments: 3
Kudos: 133





	Underground

**Author's Note:**

> This is just my first dabble into Kirk/Spock - I like Kirk whump. Shatner's Kirk was just so dreamy, and so whumpable. This is just a one-off, quickly written and posted little ficlet but I may build on it with future fics. Please be kind.

“Mr. Spock,” Kirk muttered through clenched teeth, attempting to prop himself up against the cold cave wall. He watched through half open eyes as Spock paced the cave, attempting to figure out what had happened and what their next move was.

“Mr. Spock,” Kirk said again, this time a little louder but still soft. He felt breathless and the level of pain soaring through every part of his body was making it very hard for him to affect a voice of authority to get the Vulcan's attention. When Spock was ready, he'd turn around, and until that time Jim felt it best if he just sat quietly and took stock of the situation as best he could. The cave was dark, but there was a stream of light leaking in through the area that had fallen on them so he knew all was not lost. Not that Jim ever would admit that all was lost, even with his last breath, but he knew in this case it was not just false bravado. He also knew that the crew would find them, so really it was just a matter of riding out the time.

After what seemed like forever, but had really only been minutes, Spock turned on his heel and approached the Captain.

“Captain, are you injured?” Spock asked, crouching down in front of his friend. “I'm sorry, I had no idea,” he began, answering his own question before Jim could speak.

“It's alright Spock,” Jim muttered, “I'm sure I'll survive.”

“That seems extreme,” Spock replied, leaning in closer to Jim's face. “Your breathing is labored, you need to relax. I'll need a moment to search through the debris to see if our tricorder survived the cave in,”

“No need, Spock. I can tell you with relative accuracy that I've got a number of damaged ribs, very likely a mild concussion, and my left leg is definitely broken just above the ankle. If I've missed anything, it's minor and we don't need to concern ourselves with it.”

Spock stared at his Captain blankly, finding it hard to suppress the shock of Jim admitting injury first, and then being so logical about it all.

“I am certain you have a concussion after listening to your diagnosis, Captain. I'll be sure to let Doctor McCoy know that you've admitted to an injury, he'll never believe me. ” Spock replied dryly, attempting a little levity as he slid down toward his friend's injured leg to look closer. He could see that it sat at an awkward angle and seemed to bend just wrong enough that it caught his eye. Gently, he reached out and began to tear the Captain's pant leg upward, so that he could see the skin at the break. When he reached the location, he let out an almost indistinguishable sigh of relief at seeing the skin not broken by the bone.

“Well, Jim,” Spock began, dropping some of the formality. “You're usually so adept at worst case scenario, which in this case would be a broken leg when we need to climb, but you've missed a mark here. Your bone is still encased in skin, which means we'll not need worry about infection setting in.”

“I'll do better next time,” Jim smiled a little as he relaxed, he'd been worried about that himself. “Funny that you got away with hardly a scrape, and here I am practically an invalid. Hardly seems fair.”

Spock cocked an eyebrow. “Fair, sir?”

“Well, yes, it's just that...” Jim began, but just smiled and shook his head instead. “Nevermind. It'll be nice to let someone else do all the hard work for once. I presume you'll be climbing that mountain of boulders, then? With your perfectly unbroken legs. I'll supervise from here.”

Both men knew that as much as Jim could throw the jokes around, it was killing him to be sitting there instead of leading the charge to get out of the mess. Momentarily, he considered throwing caution to the wind and attempting to stand, to climb up himself, but he knew better. The concussion had knocked some sense into his skull, it seemed, at least momentarily. He was trapped and nearly helpless for the moment, but he was with Spock and that meant everything. He could leave it all in Spock's capable hands, he could trust Spock...there were so few people he could trust, so few, but he trusted Spock more than he trusted himself sometimes.

“I've located enough items in the debris and our supplies to create a splint that should be adequate until we can get you to the ship,” Spock said as he began to set his friend's leg as carefully and skillfully as a surgeon. He wasn't overly gentle, in fact at one moment Jim very nearly passed out from the pain, sure he could feel his bones grinding together like sandpaper under his skin. Still, Jim hadn't expected nor wanted gentle, he wanted fast and efficient. He wanted to be up on his feet and out of this cave.

“I apologize if I'm causing you pain,” Spock said softly, a speck of his humanity showing through when he heard his friend hiss under his breath. The thought of hurting his friend surpassed all of his Vulcan logic and made his stomach swim. “I'm nearly finished.”

“You're doing great,” Jim whispered, tilting his head backward and squeezing his eyes shut tight. The shock of what had happened was wearing off and his head was beginning to throb. Every breath was agony. Spock's touch, though, that was agony in a different way. He longed for something he couldn't ever have, and he could feel his skin flushing – truthfully, a welcomed distraction from reality.

“The splint is complete, sir,” Spock said matter-of-factly, clearing his throat a bit awkwardly. This return to formality snapped Jim back to reality as well. He glanced down at his leg – it felt awful, even his skin felt like it was on fire around the broken bones and painful nerves, but it looked like it had been splinted by a professional. “You should be able to move around safely, once I've cleared a path...though I do hope that my comm will work if I can get up close enough to the clearing. I am sure that Scotty could get us out if he could get at our location.”

“Spock, have you tried your comm?” Jim asked, the fog on his brain clearing for just a moment. Neither of them had even attempted to get in touch with the ship, so far as he knew. It hadn't even crossed his mind to try his.

“Yes, sir, I tried it immediately after everything was done falling. No answer. I suspect I just need higher ground.”

Jim grabbed at his in his belt and flipped it open. “Kirk to Enterprise, do you copy?”

Silence.

“Kirk to Enterprise! Scotty, come in Scotty!”

Silence. Spock, sensing Jim's newfound sense of desperation and frustration, quickly grabbed the comm from his friend's hand before it found its way to being thrown against a rock.

“Scotty here, Captain, go for Scotty...” it was faint and crackling, but it was Scotty. Jim almost jumped to his feet with excitement, his hands scrambling in the dirt beneath him. Spock reached one hand out to steady his friend, placing his fingers on Jim's shoulder and giving him a rather stern look of disapproval.

“Scotty, Spock here. The Captain and I were in the cave when it collapsed. We're trapped and the Captain is badly injured. Can you lock on our locations with the transporter? Getting out of here on our own is going to prove rather problematic with just myself able to clear the debris.”

Silence. Such a long silence. They heard some crackling, fuzzy like someone was trying to talk but nothing came through. The two men looked at each other puzzled, and Spock crouched beside Jim, keeping his hand on his friend's shoulder.

“I will get us out of here,” Spock began, but before he could continue both men began to feel the familiar tingling sensation of the transporter locking on them. They were getting out. Spock let his hand stay, even in that last moment he had before he was frozen for transport. His sense of propriety told him he should have removed his hand, but his pesky humanity told him it made no difference to anyone except Jim, and he knew Jim wouldn't want him to have moved away. So he stayed. And once they were there on the Enterprise, he reached out and cradled his friend from behind before he fell to the ground without the wall to lean on any longer.

“We need McCoy,” Spock began, but stopped as he saw the doctor enter with a sense of urgency he didn't usually see in the other man.

“Good God, Jim,” Bones muttered, crouching beside the two men on the transporter floor.

“I thought...” Jim began, his eyes closing against the harsh light of his ship to shut it out, “you seemed bored lately. Needed something to do. Here you go.”

Bones just blinked stupidly for a moment, unable to make sense of what he was seeing, and shook his head. His eyes locked with Spock's, and he nodded knowingly, he knew. He knew all of it. Jim was his best friend. Bones knew. He didn't understand it, but he was glad for it right now.

“Thank you Spock,” Bones said with a smile as they lifted the Captain onto a stretcher to get him to sickbay. “Your splint is...perfect. I wouldn't have thought you'd,” he paused, watching for Spock's reaction.

“It was simply the logical thing to do.”


End file.
